Comparison of immunomagnetic separation beads for detection of six non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli serogroups in different matrices.

Unlabelled: Immunomagnetic separation used with culture based methods has been a useful technique in the detection of pathogens. However, previous studies have not answered many of the necessary questions for real world applications. The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of different immunomagnetic separation (IMS) bead types in recovery of the correct serogroup from a mixture of big six non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli strains. To determine the impact of different matrices on recovery, samples of sterile phosphate buffered saline (PBS), sterile and non-sterile cattle faeces, ground beef and lettuce were inoculated with 10 CFU per ml mixture of isolates representing the six serogroups. After a 6 h incubation at 37°C, samples were mixed with IMS beads from three different commercial sources and plated on eosin methylene blue agar (EMB). Three suspect E. coli colonies were selected from each EMB plate and multiplex polymerase chain reaction was used to determine the serogroup. The rate of correct identification varied with the serogroup, IMS bead manufacturer and matrix. Overall, recovery of the correct serogroup became less likely with increase in matrix complexity, with enrichments containing lettuce having the greatest number of bead types with significantly lower likelihood of correct recovery compared to recovery in PBS.

Significance And Impact Of The Study: The need to accurately and efficiently detect Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O26, O45, O103, O111, O121 and O145, which have caused outbreaks on numerous occasions, is a major public health and food safety concern in the United States. Detecting these STEC serogroups can be challenging because methods to detect non-O157 serogroups have not been refined as compared to those for O157. Immunomagnetic separation (IMS) has the potential to isolate STEC from a mixture in complex matrices. Our results highlight the need for optimization of IMS-based detection of STEC to effectively recover the targeted serogroup from a variety of sample matrices.